36 Company executive training program," Frummer replied sadly. "I think it was from her." Actually, the applica- tion, which might have been meant as the final cut, cheered F rummer a bit, since he had not previously been certain that Rosalie knew his name. "Barnett," Magruder said, "I think your trouble is that you don't have enough group militancy." " TI ' I f " 1ere s on y one 0 me, Frummer said. "There is no roon1 for smart-alecks in the move- " " d M d " B " ment, sal i agru er. elng cool is no longer cool, Barnett. Not being cool is cool." "I'm sorry, I was upset," said Frummer. "How do you thInk I can get some group militancy? " "Lead them right to the White House and go limp, naturally," said Magruder. "Go to the Power Structure's main gate and lie down like a man. Let dozens of flowers bloom with you. Believe me, Rosalie will never be able to resist it." Frummer had doubts about lying down at the White House, but he found it hard to resist anything that might give him a chance to impress Rosalie. Also, Magruder had thought of a perfect occasion for going limp. The President had invited twenty bankers, four architects, and the film critic of the Dallas Bulletin to a Cele- hration of the North Atlantic Cultural Renaissance. What better time to dem- onstrate to the world the true radical's opposition to the i\.merican Establish- ment? Frummer approached the adminis- trative problems of the demonstration with a new-found ability to act. He scurried around to make arrangements with the chartered-bus company and the placard-maker; he notified the press and the NazI Party. In a few weeks, the demonstration was ready. F ortu- nately, it was a bnght, if somewhat chilly, day, and-even more wel- come-Magruder had apparently pre- vaIled upon Rosalie to join the demon- stration. She was, in fact, the first one down as the group spread itself across the V\Thite House driveway to block the Cadillacs carrying those in- vited to the celebration F rUlnmer was ecstatic. The cars had been held up for about twenty minutes when two White IR.R.ECONCILAßLES How to explain that on the day we knew disease had invaded her who had brought us into the world, that death had cornered her like a weapon she would not escape for long, the winter sun spread vastly and with utter ease giving sharpness to each thing, making all things stand out as usually they don't: a line of ships rooted like rocks, and people in the frozen streets free and light as the breath that clung to them like clouds. Along the edge of the cold sky a strip of deep la vender ran like a streamer in a win d pulled hy an invisible string, and the water in the port made over by days of cold looked chopped but perlnanent, as if the sea were chunks of bottleglass. And everywhere surfaces giving off the winter sun in a sort of game of catch, throwing at each the light that each received, so that . House guards approached Frummer, ascertained that he was the leader of the demonstration, and told him that the President would like to see him. The demonstrators were jubilant as Frummer walked away wIth the guards. "l ell him, Barnett!" they shouted. "Give it to him, Barney baby!" Barnett waved and pulled his blue jeans lower, to cover his ortho- pedic shoes. Pressed against the gate, the demonstrators saw a tal] man come out of the White House to meet Frummer. He shook Barnett's hand and walked him back to the White House with one arm draped paternally around Frum- mer's shoulder. The demonstrators strained to hear the conversation, but all they heard was "We just want to hep you, son," and then the two figures disappeared into the White House. Thirty minutes later, Frummer emerged and walked to the gate to address his followers. "I think we've reached a good agreement," he said, speaking with unaccustomed confi- dence. "I have told the President that the effect was a jubilation, a juggler's feat so fast, so intricate a tnck, the full extent of its multifarious display escaped our eyes. But the sense that It was there, and that it meant not to deceIve hut to reveal a joy did not elude us. Yet we were driving to get to her who we feared might soon be gone. And how were we to reconcile exuberance with what we were about? That a car was taking us to the condition we call death, that extinction could occur when the day showed itself in a display so bright it seemed a game of light, that disappearance should make sense when all about us objects we could not ndme flared up in a cold winter sun and shone until we had to turn from them as from a flame, nothing in us could reconcile, nothing in us could explain. -ARTHUR GREGOR e I wil1 remove the demonstrators from the gate, and in return he has agreed to schedule a Festival of Radicalism in America at the V\Thite House sometime next fall. He suggested we join him in a Crusade Against the Establishment." "Sellout' " somebody yelled. "Fink!" yelled another demonstra- tor. Frummer was stunned. "I don't think you realize what kind of help a man that important can give us in fightIng the Power Structure!" he shouted. But the demonstrators were out- raged. They would have refused to leave, except that Frummer had al- ready ordered the buses, and there was no other way to get back to New York free Some ladies from the White House served hot chocolate and chili to the demonstrators as they lined up to file onto the buses. Rosalie Mondle seemed the angriest of all. She refused to board the bus, and she would have had to spend the long day in Washington alone, except that Roland Magruder happened to be in the area interviewing some Albanian revisionists. He and Rosalie went limp together in a small anteroom of the South African Embassy, where it was cozy and warm. -CALVIN TRILLIN